In an automotive vehicle having a conventional friction clutch between the vehicle engine and the manually-actuated transmission, the engine characteristics include power and inertia impulses which will drive the clutch with an irregular series of intermittent thrusts when the transmission is in neutral position, the clutch is engaged and the engine is at idle rpm. These impulses are transmitted to the transmission gears which become excited to oscillate through their backlash space and produce objectionable gear rattle. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 212,925, filed Dec. 4, 1980 discloses several embodiments of a clutch driven plate assembly designed to overcome the above problem, and the present invention relates to improvements in the construction of the invention of the above cited application.